Troops enforce Xinjiang peace
Updated on 09 July 2009
Chinese troops are enforcing a fragile peace in the troubled Xinjiang region after a spate of ethnic violence.
Armoured vehicles and trucks carrying thousands of soldiers rumbled through riot-damaged streets of the regional capital Urumqi, blaring out propaganda urging ethnic unity.
Some 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded on Sunday when minority Muslim Uighurs went on the rampage against Han Chinese.
Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on Xinjiang, a vast desert territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are evacuating their citizens from the restive region and warned against travelling to Xinjiang.
Han Chinese, who feel threatened after Sunday's violence, cheered Thursday's show of military might and took pictures, while Uighur residents looked on with strained faces.
One Uighur woman said: "This makes me scared and I think it's meant to. What can we do against so many soldiers?"
Li Zhi, Communist Party boss of Urumqi, said he would seek the death penalty for rioters who resorted to "cruel means" and murdered people in the city.
A line of troops, armoured vehicles and trucks measuring several kilometres blasted out propaganda for about 25 minutes as it passed through Saimachang, the Uighur neighbourhood where hundreds of women protested on Tuesday.
Helicopters flying only a few metres above rooftops scattered leaflets over a crowd of hundreds who gathered to watch the security forces march by.
Troops mounted on the truck with guns and riot shields shouted slogans in unison and some of the trucks carried signs in Chinese, one of which read "separatists bring calamity to the country and its people".
Shi Guanzheng, a retired teacher originally from Shanghai, blamed the government for failing to quell protests by Han on Tuesday, when, armed with knives, clubs and bars, they thronged parts of the city demanding revenge against Uighurs.
He said: "That should never have happened. It should have been nipped in the bud. The killings of innocent people is never justified, but now both sides are so filled with emotion that the repercussions will last a long time.
"I'm scared about what will happen when the (paramilitary) People's Armed Police have to leave. It's not about tomorrow or the next day. It's about next month or after. What then?"
The government has blamed Sunday's killings on exiled Uighurs seeking independence, especially Rebiya Kadeer, an activist who lives in exile in the United States. Kadeer has denied the accusations.
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